Wyoming asks federal judge to continue wolf suit

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The state of Wyoming is asking a federal judge not to allow a coalition of environmental groups to pull the plug on a lawsuit they filed challenging last year’s decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over management of wolves to the state.

Environmental groups last week filed papers to dismiss their lawsuit pending in federal court in Cheyenne. The groups originally filed the lawsuit in Colorado and had opposed a request from Fish and Wildlife Service and the state to transfer the case to Cheyenne.

Dismissing the Cheyenne lawsuit would leave a similar challenge filed by a different coalition of groups pending in federal court in Washington, D.C. The federal judge handling that case recently rejected a request from Fish and Wildlife and the state to transfer it to federal court in Cheyenne.